Wardie land Imperial Railways

Wardie land Imperial Railways is a union of different railway companies who serve Wardie land and the empire, like the Great Southern Railway (GSR), which serves the south of the Home Islands, which are then split into local lines like the Great South-West Railway (GSWR). As well Great Northern Railway (GNR) which serves the North of the Home Islands, Great Western Railway (GWR) and the Great Eastern Railway (GER) which split off into local lines like the South-Western Main Line (SWML), Southern Main Line (SML), Great North-East Railway (GNER) etc, and colonial railways like the Great Imperial Desert Railway (GIDR), which serves the western colonies and the Great Imperial Eastern Railway (GIER) which serves the Eastern Colonies, and so on.

As with many things Wardie land has stayed close to the motherland, the UK, on railways, the WIR uses mainly British trains, and uses names (like GNER) which were more famously used in Britain.

The WIR was founded in 1832 as the New London and New Rawcliffe Railway (NL&NRR), this railway was 10 miles long and followed the coastline east from New London to New Rawcliffe round Capital Bay. The first trains were open carriages pulled by a single engine, smoke and soot wafted in the passengers face by the locomotive pulling them, the trains were none-the-less a technical marvel and was overseen by the founder of the railways and of Wardie land, the UK, whom the world looked to when it came to trains and ships. In 1833 the open carriages were replaced with covered carriages with seating, glass windows which could open and close and candle lamps for night journeys.

An illustration of two NL&NRR trains, the upper picture being an 1832-style train, and the bottom picture being an 1833-style train

Also in 1833 the NL&NRR was expanded to Bayport 12 miles north-north-east of New Rawcliffe, becoming the Southern Railway (SR), the track was now 22 miles long. People of New London could now get to Bayport quicker than before, and flocked to seaside towns like Bayport, New Scarborough, Cliff-on-Sea, leading to their growth as holiday resorts.

Then in 1836 a railway was laid in the north of Capital Island, between Northmere and Snekavon, this was the Northern Railway (NR), Snekavon had a line to Portholme, this was the North-Western Railway (NWR), Snekavon also had a line to Fishwick, this was the North-Eastern Railway (NER).

Through-out the 19th century the railways continued to grow, and so did the empire, by 1870 more railways had opened up, like the East-West Railway (EWR), the North-South Railway (NSR), Grand Central Railway (GCR, which had a circular line around the middle of Capital Island), the Great Docklands Railway (GDR, which served the different docks and ports of Capital Island like New Rawcliffe, Bayport and East Harbour. Other smaller railways had emerged on other islands like the Sunset Island Railway (SIR). Tracks were laid in the colonies and companies like Great Imperial Desert Railway were founded.

A Stirling 4-2-2, first entered service in 1870, a workhorse who served all over, on Capital Island, the other Home Islands and the colonies, started to be withdrawn at the end of the 1890s, but could still be found in service in the colonies as late as the 1920s.

In 1872 it was decided there were too many different companies it was causing confusion, so it was decided the different companies would be absorbed into one company. The railway companies of the north became Northern Railway (NR), the companies of the west became the Western Railway (WR), the companies in the east became the Bayport and Fishwick Railway (BFR), whilst the southern railway companies became New London and the South Railway (NLSR). These changes only applied to Capital Island, railways on different islands were exempt.

In 1883 they were renamed, the Northern Railway became the Great Northern Railway, Western Railway became the Great Western Railway, Bayport and Fishwick Railway became the Great Eastern Railway (though Fishwick was also part of the Great North-East Railway run by Great Northern, whilst Bayport was also part of the Great South-East Railway run by Great Southern) and the New London and the South Railway became the Great Southern Railway. Each railway company had several bits of line they ran. e.g. Great Northern Railway ran the Northern Railway, Great North-West Railway and the Great North-East Railway as well as local lines like the Snekavon to Port Lionfish Line.

These companies, companies on other islands in the Home Islands and the colonial railway companies formed Wardie land Imperial Railways.

Through-out the late 19th and 20th centuries the railways continued to expand and found more military uses like troop transport, military cargo transporting and railway artillery. railway artillery was being experimented as soon as the railways were first opened, the first railway artillery train was made in 1834, it was just some flatbed cars with sandbags surrounding a few iron cannons, this was the standard layout of artillery trains for much of the 19th century, later with some machine guns dotted around to help defend against would-be boarders.

In the late 19th century the armoured train started being used, instead of being some flatbeds with some old muzzle-loading cannons surrounded by sandbags these trains used purpose-built armoured carriages. However, a few of the old-style artillery trains using muzzle-loader cannons mounted on flatbed cars could be found in service in the colonies as late as the 1930s, one such train was used in the 1933 Saqan Uprising, where it gave help to the defenders of Kedagad.

Railway artillery was used operationally in the colonies, where it proved effective, instead of relying on an army to cross desert or jungle to reach an enemy, a train could reach an enemy quicker and bombard them, providing the target was somewhat close to the railway line, this could also prove a disadvantage when an enemy stayed away from a railway line, it also needed a spotter to keep an eye on the enemy if they were moving, and direct the train crew on which lines to go on to meet the enemy.